“Don’t you do this to me, Hermione Malfoy,” Hermione heard, sounding so far away.

Was she dying? Was that what everything was finally coming down to? That she was dying, and Draco had come back to her, so that they could walk on together? And what about the baby? What about Scorpius?

She relaxed her mind, allowing the ease of the pain to take over her body. It was so simple, she thought. All she had to do was relax, and everything would be fine. It was easy, really. And she would have her chance to be with Draco again.

“You can’t do this, Hermione. Not here, not now. Do you hear me? Scorpius needs his mother. We need you.”

Scorpius. The thought of him slammed her with more pain than she had felt before. She couldn’t do this to him. They were right. Scorpius had already lost his father. He didn’t need to lose his mother as well.

Then she heard it again.

“Don’t you dare give up now. Do you hear me?”

“Draco,” she muttered, trying to take herself toward the sound. He sounded closer, and she knew that all she wanted to do was make her way to him. If she could do that, then everything would be fine.

‘I think she’s coming around,” a different voice called, that also sounded so very far away.

Hermione blinked her eyes a few times, trying to orient herself with where she was.

Her first focus was to her left. “You had us scared there for a minute," a voice said. But it wasn’t just a voice. It was Draco’s voice.

“She probably thinks we did,” she heard that other voice again. This time she recognised it. Harry’s voice.

“I’m dead,” she whispered. “I have to be.”

“Shh, no you’re not,” Harry’s voice said again.

“But Draco.. His voice. If I’m not dead, why do I keep hearing his voice?”

“Brace yourself, Hermione,” Harry said.

“What now?” she said. “I can’t take much more. If I do, then I might really die.”

“Please, don’t do that, love.”

“Hermione, relax. But there’s no easy way to tell you this. See, like I said, you aren’t dead. But then, neither is Draco.”

Her eyes shot wide open at that.

“But how? Why? We had a funeral. We buried him.

Her head turned to the right where she saw Draco, in the flesh, who was really and truly sitting there.

“We had your funeral. I saw your body. I… your spirit visited me.”

He ran a hand through his hair.

“Do tell her, Draco,” Harry said. “I’ve already hear the story three times and I still can't quite get over it.

“As for the vision, there are certain advantages to being an Occlumus. Or a Legilimus, too for that matter.”

Hermione couldn’t stand it anymore.

“I don’t give a flying fuck what you are. I just want to know why we all thought you were dead, only to have you just show up.”

“Calm down, Hermione,” Harry said. “Or you’re likely to relapse.”

“My baby,” she said suddenly. “What have you done with my baby?”

“I think you mean our baby. She’s fine,” Draco whispered.

“She?” a whisper came out.

He nodded, with a grin. “She. All six pounds, eight ounces of her.

“I just don’t understand. Where were you? Why did we think you were dead?”

“I’d had a break in the case I’d almost figured everything out. And Harry, I apologize again for not confiding in you. I just… wanted it to be something I did.

Then a new lead came in. Blaise, you remember Blaise Zabini, don’t you?”

Hermione nodded.

“He’s been working on a completely different case. It wasn’t until recently that we found out the cases were related.”

“That was what you were working on that night,” Ron interrupted, his voice appearing out of nowhere

Draco nodded. “Before Daphne’s murder, there had been a series of, impersonations, taking place.”

“I remember those,” Harry said. “But that isn’t my department, so I didn’t have many details.

Draco looked thoughtful a moment before he went on.

“Here’s the short version of the story. Daphne Greengrass, that is, the real Daphne Greengrass, is not the one you met, Ron.”

“But, what about Rose…”

He shook his head. “That part is still a little fuzzy, but Rose is yours, and Daphne‘s. The real Daphne‘s. There’s no doubt about that. What happened happenened sometime after her birth and before she came to see you.”

“So Daphne, the real Daphne, that is, is still alive?” Ron asked.

Draco nodded. “She is. She’s been undercover, with me, filling in what she knows and remembers.”

“But why did you have to pretend to be dead?” Hermione burst out. “I just don’t understand.”

“If the killer, or would be killer, though I was dead, they would assume the case was closing. They’d get brave and more to the open.”

“I’m still not sure,” Harry said,” about Daphne. So you’re saying someone impersonated her, then they were the one who died? But that means, you have two criminals. The impersonator and the killer.”

“That about sums it up,” Draco said.

“But wait a minute,” Hermione added.

“Why was Ron accused of the murder?”

Ron’s face, at that moment, went redder than his hair.

He still had yet to explain how that fit into what was going on, and wasn’t looking forward to sharing it, but he knew that sooner or later he would be forced to.

“Why did you have to keep this a secret from us?” Hermione asked.

“Do you remember what I said about Occulmency?” Draco asked.

Harry piped in. “If I ever have to hear that word again, it’ll be too soon,” he groaned, remembering his ill-fated attempts.

“That’s why,” Draco said. “Harry, no offence, but you’re useless at it. And Hermione, you never even practiced. The risk in the killer being able to pull the truth out of you was bigger than what I wanted to risk. If they were to think that I was dead, I don‘t think either of you would have been able to pull it off with the pretending.”

A sudden thought hit Hermione. “What about that day in the cemetery?”

“What about it?”

“Ws that… how did you make Lily Potter appear to me?”

Three sets of eyes stared at her.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Draco said. There are some things I can’t do, and make someone, especially the spirit of someone else, appear. There is just no magic powerful enough for that to happen.”

She shook her head. “But I know what I saw. I’m not crazy. At least, I’m not crazy than any of you. She was there. I talked to her. She talked to me.”

“Shh, my love. We don’t think you’re crazy. And I never said you didn’t talk to her. I just said that I didn’t have anything to do with it.”

The Healer came into the room that moment, carrying a pink blanket.

“There’s a little lady here who I think would like to meet her parents.”

“I don’t know whether to hug you, or hate you for what all I’ve been through the past few months,” Hermione said softly after the door had closed.

Draco clasped his hands together in front of him as he tried to find words to explain exactly how it was that he was feeling. He knew that there weren’t words out there to explain to her exactly why he’d done what he had. He knew that deep down she knew why he did it. But he also knew it wasn’t the easiest thing to accept.

“Draco!” Harry hissed in a loud whisper.

Draco stirred, but didn’t open his eyes.

Harry nudged his shoulder, gently though, as he had the baby cradled in his arms and Harry didn’t want to be responsible for making draco drop her, though he knew that he shouldn’t worry, as Draco had a very firm grip.

“Hmmm,” Draco mumbled, as his head rolled around slightly in his chair.

Harry sighed, and figured he’d try one more time. If he didn’t wake, then he’d just wait and try again later.

“Draco Malfoy… wake up!”

“What?” he finally asked, groggily.

A huge grin crossed Harry’s face. “I just wanted to share the news.”

It only took seconds for Draco to wake completely up and his eyes to get wide.

“Ginny… the baby… what did she have?”

“Twins,” Harry said, it still feeling unreal as the words crossed his lips. “A boy and a girl.”

“Twins, huh,” Draco said.

“I know. The thought of it being more than one never even crossed my mind.”

He just stood there for a minute.

“Harry?” Draco said, pulling him back to reality.

“Hmm?”

“No offence, but what the hell are you doing in here?”

“Sorry?” Harry asked, confused.

“You need to be in there with your wife. And you’re children.”

“Oh, um, yeah…” he said, leaving the door, still in a daze.

As the door closed behind him, Draco just shook his head. There are some things, he thought, that just will never change.

A/N: So this chapter is finally here! Whoo hoo. I wanted to pretty it up a little before posting, but I also wanted to give it to you as soon as possible. So I'm posting it now, and then maybe adding more later. We'll just see what happens.

So there you go :) Draco is back. So I thank those of you who didn't lose faith in me from the beginning of all of this and had a feeling that he would be back. So now they've had their baby and Ginny and Harry have had theirs. We still aren't done, though. There's more to come :)

Thanks for reading!

Oh, and the next chapter might take a while, as I haven't really gotten started writing it yet. So I still have to do that.